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Friday, 15 August 2014

Viper - Part 3 (Cockpit decals)

Everything going in the fuselage - or requiring paint before further assembly - is painted. Both cockpits are USA Grey (Vallejo 71.047). The pilot's uniforms are camouflage green (71.022), with a few drops of the grey, to make it a little more dull.
The landing gear for the Mark II is aluminium and for the Mark VII is steel. The difference is only caused by me misreading the instructions too quickly. I found some nasty seams on them anyway, which had to be sanded smooth. I'll be redoing them aluminium as well.

Cockpit decals
The cockpit for Revell's Mark II has a very nice amount of decals. Moebius' Mark VII has ONE! The Revell version of this kit has a lot more decals, but I'm not going to spend money in obtaining them.

Pilots
The pilots just needed a bit more detail. Grey boots and gloves (German grey - 71.052), a black belt and joystick and a golden helmet with silver visor (not yet done).
While looking for a new bottle of black paint on my workbench, I stumbled upon an old but unused bottle of "Black glaze" (70.855). I obtained it in a big batch of Vallejo paint from my brother-in-law's stash of unused paint and kept it out of curiosity.
Unsure of the difference between (and inexperienced in the use of) glazes, washes and plain heavily diluted paint, I gave it a try on one of the pilots. Heavily diluted in a first layer, it looked awful until it dried. The (old) Vallejo thinner I used is white and dries clear(ish), but looks weird at first. Once dry, I could see the purpose of this glaze. A second layer went on less thinned. See below for the difference between the treated and untreated pilot.

Cockpit assembly
The Mark VII cockpit-pieces fit perfectly, but the Mark II pieces have a lot of wiggle-room in their assembly, so to prevent it from not fitting inside the fuselage once assembled, I glued it all and sandwiched it in between the fuselage halves. This way, fit is perfect and I can let the glue set with everything in it's proper position.

Here are both resulting cockpits. I added a little painted detail to the Mark VII, because that one lonely decal didn't do the cockpit much justice.

Once the pilots are done, everything will receive a coat of varnish (to seal in and protect the decals) and the fuselages will be closed.